AUDIENCES ARE FANATICS!

Audiences are fanatics. They go after the actors they admire.

They collect autographed photos they ask actors to sign. As for collecting movie memorabilia, it is boundless: All sorts of movie documents and objects are collected by aficionados, and above all trading cards inserted into packs of chewing gum, chocolate, and other consumable goods. Books on film, film novels, special issues, album books, etc. also fall within the audience’s field of interest. This passion is also reflected in everyday consumer goods: bubble gum boxes with pictures of Fatma Girik, calendars with stars, postcards of Müjde Ar sent by a soldier to a friend, a tea saucer with the picture of Türkan Şoray, the Ayhan Işık hairstyle, and Yılmaz Güney posters are all proof of the audience’s fanaticism.

“One Hundred Years of Love” features three different fanatics in the exhibition: Pınar Çekirge, who, all her life, has been disturbed by films in which Filiz Akın dies; Metin Şamdan, proudly nicknamed “Şorayholic,” who is today the president of the Türkan Şoray Fan Club; and Vadullah Taş, a fan of Yılmaz Güney, whose passion led him to gather an archive worth, in his own words, “five truckloads.” The stars adored by these three fanatics became the meaning of their lives...